Cairo: An Egyptian court has handed down another mass death sentence, condemning 683 Muslim Brotherhood supporters, including the movement's general leader Mohammed Badie, to die for inciting violence after the army overthrew former president Mohamed Mursi.

The same court also recommended that death sentences handed down to 529 people from the town of Matai last month be commuted to 25 years or life in prison for 492 of those defendants.

The judge, Saeed Yousef, maintained the original death sentence for 37 defendants, although in scenes of chaos outside the court relatives were initially left without any confirmation of who was condemned to execution and who was not.

Horrifying families, lawyers and human rights groups, Justice Yousef conducted the short trials in the absence of most of the defendants and with lawyers unable to raise any objections about the case or its departure from standard judicial process.

Advertisement

Many were charged over the August 14 death of a deputy police chief, Colonel Mustafa Ragab, and the attempted murder of a second officer and a policeman, as well as attacking police stations and churches and stealing weapons.

It was the day about 1000 pro-Brotherhood demonstrators were killed when Egyptian security forces cleared the Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda protests in Cairo, and angry clashes broke out around the country.

Death sentences were handed down to people accused of involvement in the murder and attempted murder of policemen. Photo: AFP

Some of the worst attacks were in Matai in Egypt’s Minya governorate, 220 kilometres south of Cairo on the Nile delta and home to one of Egypt’s largest Coptic Christian populations as well as a significant community of Brotherhood supporters.

Since then Egyptian authorities have pursued a ferocious crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters – most of its leadership are in prison while about 16,000 people have been arrested and jailed, some swept up in the arbitrary arrests of protesters.

Adel Ali, a lawyer involved in both cases, said while Egypt’s justice system should not be measured against these two examples, “it is a fact that some judges are serving the political leaders now”.

An Egyptian woman reacts outside the courtroom in Minya after Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 682 other alleged Islamists were sentenced to death. Photo: AFP

“This judge thinks he is doing the current state a favour by sentencing certain people with political affiliations to death but what he is doing is further dividing the country before our presidential elections.”

Mr Ali, who represents 12 of the 37 defendants whose death sentence was upheld, has appealed to the Court of Cassation. He said he expects the appeal to be upheld and that the case will be retried in a new court in front of a new judge.

Maha Sayed, the wife of one of the 529 defendants, Ahmed Eid Ahmed Telb, was sobbing when Fairfax Media managed to contact her by phone.

Her husband, a lawyer, denies being anywhere near the Matai police station on August 14 and has repeatedly told police his only involvement was to later represent those charged with crimes related to the attack.

She discovered he is one of those to be spared the death penalty, but now faces 25 years in prison for a crime he says he did not commit.

“We totally collapsed when we heard the news – we thought the judge might have a good conscience and actually look at the evidence and that Ahmed would be declared innocent, but he did not and now everything is lost.”

Egyptian human rights experts say it is unlikely any of the defendants will be executed, and expect their lawyers to appeal to the Court of Cassation to have the verdict overturned.

Like the last mass death sentence handed down by this judge, the trial lacked the most basic due process protection and did not meet international standards for a fair trial, said Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.

“These are not isolated developments,” she warned. “Every day throughout the country, courts have been issuing draconian sentences based on trials that in many cases are riddled with serious procedural violations.”

Many of those detained have been arrested for nothing more than membership of the Muslim Brotherhood or peaceful opposition to the interim government, she said.

“The decisions appear to be aimed at striking terror in those who dare to criticise the government. Even though the decision can, and likely will, be overturned provides little comfort for the hundreds of families facing the real prospect their loved one could be executed.”

Despite the international outcry, much of the local media commentary has been supportive of the decisions.

Al-Dostour newspaper praised the judge, calling him a courageous judge who fears no one but God, while Al-Masry Al-Youm refers to him as the “Brotherhood execution judge”.